Of Widow Bites and Arrowheads
by oceannblue
Summary: For as long as she can remember, she has had nothing. When an agent of SHIELD is sent after her to kill her, he decides to spare her life and offer her a choice instead. A choice that will forever change her life and show her that she can be so much more than the assassin they made her.


**Hi there! **

**Just a few things before I'll let you get to the story.**  
**Clint's and Natasha's friendship is probably my favorite onscreen–friendship of all times. That said, Endgame left me completely devastated, and it's still ages until the Black Widow movie premieres, so I decided to start writing my own version of Natasha's backstory and the development of their friendship. I'll do my best to include events from her past that have been hinted at in the movies.**  
**Like I said, though, this is my version of their story and it takes place in the MCU, which means the plot probably won't really go along with the comics. I know a few basics about Natasha's backstory in the comics, but I've never actually read them. (I do know that she has a history with Bucky/The Winter Soldier though, so I'll probably do a chapter on that.)**  
**I've also seen the Black Widow trailer (obviously), but I started writing this before it came out, so the things from the trailer and future ones probably won't be part of this story.**  
**There will be some flashbacks dealing with Nat's upbringing in the Red Room and previous missions as an assassin, which means this will go into some pretty dark and violent places at times, just so you're warned.**  
**Finally, this is my first fanfic, so I'd really love to hear what you think. **

**Now have fun!**

_Prologue_

_FLORENCE, ITALY, OCTOBER 2002_

The beneficence event was a great success and the bar was teeming with high ranking politicians, business officials, artists, as well as high society members with international importance. There was a warm buzz in the room, the atmosphere filled with intriguing conversations and laughter, but the woman sitting at the bar counter seemed unfazed by it all, untouched. Considering the wealth and importance of the people surrounding her, she radiated an unusual amount of confidence, and even in the room full of beautiful, elegantly dressed people, her appearance was certainly worth noticing. There was something about her, something mysterious. Something that turned heads and caught eyes. Something that made people stop and stare.

She looked stunning in her long midnight green dress, the satin fabric hugging her curves perfectly. A slit on the side allowed a glimpse of one of her long legs, while the open back showed exactly enough skin for more to be desired. Its color created a fascinating contrast against her ivory skin and her fiery red hair that hung in long, loose curls over one shoulder. In her left, she was elegantly holding a Martini glass — not that she particularly liked Martinis, but it was what had seemed to best suit her current persona.

Her own preferences had never really mattered and never would. What mattered were her missions, and they always required her to adapt a new identity, to shed her own skin and slide into a different one. And she did so seamlessly, effortlessly.

Natalia had been trained to be exceptional at blending in, to fly under the radar and pry from the shadows. It was what she had to do most of the time and from where she could do her best work. She knew how to hide in plain sight, how to remain unseen until the damage was already done. And at this point, being unnoticed had become a sort of comfort zone to her, a safe place — or at least the closest thing to that she would ever get.

The better she blended in, the lower the risk of being killed.

But when it was needed, she was a natural at standing out, at making a whole room stop around her and hold their breath in awe. When they needed her to, she knew how to make a show of herself and pretend that she was special.

The bartender slipped her a napkin with her next drink that told her that her target had arrived. She quickly made it disappear and gave him an almost imperceptible nod before taking a sip of her drink. So the show was on. All she had to do now was wait for her mark to notice her. She smiled to herself inwardly. She was very aware of her effect on people, especially men, and considering how she looked in that dress, she was certain she wouldn't have to wait for long.

Only a moment later, she was proven right.

"Mind if I join you for a drink?"

Natalia took another small sip before looking over her shoulder at the man who was now standing closely behind her. She flashed him a seductive smile and held his gaze. "And I thought you would never ask," she replied with a flawless British accent. He already couldn't take his eyes off her.

Oh, this was going to be so easy.

It didn't take her long to figure him out. The guy was a major European politician with international connections and a textbook example of a narcissist; overconfident, absolutely full of himself, and completely convinced that his charms were irresistible.

After only two more drinks, she was already following her target up to his hotel room. Her mission was simple. Get into his room, get access to his security vault, get all the information she could from its inside, and take out the guy. Later, she would meet her contact at a secure location to deliver the intel she had gathered.

He was staying in the penthouse suit, of course. Her eyes scanned over the room while they walked inside. It was spacious and nice, with a comfortable looking king size bed on one end, two leather sofas in its center, and the wall facing the street lined with large windows. The room was full of tasteful decorating elements and luxury carpets, and the open space was only interrupted by one wall, separating an exclusive looking kitchen area from the rest of the room.

Once Natalia had made out the safe, she started kissing him, maneuvering him over to the bed and climbing on top of him. She kissed him passionately enough to wake his desire, but held back just enough to leave him wanting more. All she needed now was an opportunity. When he started pulling down the strings of her dress, she broke the kiss, taking advantage of the situation to get him out of the room for a moment.

"Why so fast now? We've got all night," she murmured, giving him a coy smile. "How about some more champagne?"

The guy grinned at her with a sickening arrogance and got up from the bed. "Anything you want."

As soon as he was out of sight, she went over to the safe and got to work. Her first try was already successful. He had used the date of his initiation into office as the access code. People were so predictable.

His face was an expression of pure shock when he returned to find her kneeling in front of his open safe. He hadn't seen it coming; they never did. After all, no one would ever suspect someone like her to be able to do any harm, or would expect someone this untrustworthy to be behind the sweet or mysterious personas she put on.

Without a word of explanation or any emotion crossing her features, she retrieved her gun from it's holster on her thigh and shot him straight between the eyes. It was a quiet shot, unheard by anyone else in the building but her, muffled by the silencer at the barrel of her gun. Part of her would have liked to take her time with killing him, but orders were orders, and she had been told to be quick. He dropped to the ground, the two champagne glasses shattering on the tiles and the surprise still in his eyes.

They never even saw it coming.

Immediately, she went straight back to business, the body on the floor already long forgotten. The mission wasn't finished yet. Inside the safe there was a few travel documents, a passport, cash, and, finally, something she could use. A laptop. She turned it on and broke through the firewall without great difficulty. Then she plugged in a small flash drive she had been carrying and started downloading the information. Her eyes widened the slightest bit as she watched the data flow across the screen and things started clicking into place in her mind. This was definitely big. Information of this importance would get her superiors a lot closer to their goal, and once more proof her usefulness to those in charge, thus extending the life span they would still allow for her by a significant amount.

Natalia had just stored the flash drive away securely when she heard it; the sound of footsteps closing in on the door of her target's hotel room that she probably would missed if always being on high alert hadn't been drilled into her all her life.

There had been people following her recently, more than just the usual shadowing of her every move by her superiors, and there had been attacks too. At first, she had suspected her own government to be behind this, but she had quickly realized that the strategy didn't really match and this had to be the work of someone else.

The attacks were always carried out by highly trained, well armed teams and with a similar pattern of attack. Natalia had also managed to get a good look at their gear and uniforms and had noticed that there was always an eagle–like symbol on their sleeves that was enclosed in a black circle, so at least it was safe to assume that the attacks were all connected. She couldn't recall ever seeing the symbol anywhere else before, however, and none of her research had provided her with any useful results. Thus the only lead she had at the moment was that whoever was behind this had to be someone who was very good at operating from the shadows and had enough access and resources to send full on strike teams after her. And they were good, too — not that they were ever any match for her, of course.

Not that they would be any match for her this time.

Grabbing the stack of cash from the safe and securing it in her former gun holster — cash could always be useful — she quickly got up, already with a plan in mind. She picked the sheets off the bed and tied them into a robe that she left dangling out of a wide open window, creating a scenery that suggested she had jumped out and fled as quickly as possible. It was the logical solution anyone else would have taken, so they would believe it. Then she made made quick work of ripping off the lower part of her dress and twisting the fabric into a loop — she hated fighting in these things anyway, and right now she needed a sling more than she needed an evening gown —before she reloaded her gun and positioned herself behind the door where they wouldn't see her right away.

Her attackers fell for her little trick like she had predicted and walked right past her. Natalia let them walk fully into her trap before launching at the man in the back, just as he turned to start securing the room. In a swift motion, she wrapped her sling around his automatic gun and pulled him towards her, shooting him in the process. She shot another three effectively from behind before they even had time to react. Using the first guy's limp body as a shield against the spray of bullets, she managed to take down the remaining attackers with two well aimed shots and had just enough time to ready herself before the backup team — now alarmed by the fighting noise — stormed into the room.

There were three more coming from the hallway, and another three roping down from the roof and throwing themselves through the windows into the room. They were surrounding her now and thought they had her boxed in, she could tell. Certainly none of them expected her to suddenly jump at them again, which played hugely to her advantage; the element of surprise had always been one of her closest allies. Before any of them could even move, she had her legs around the neck of the guy to her left. She broke it with a quick twist. When he tumbled to the ground, she used her momentum to spin towards the two next closest guys and disarm both of them with a quick kick before picking up one of their machines guns. She cracked both of their skulls with its handle, and left the rest of the team no time to react as she proceeded taking them down one by one with a few precise blows and chokes and without ever having to fire any of the machine guns. She wasn't only an expert in taking people out fast, but in doing so quietly as well.

When she was done with them, she took the time to look for the symbol on their uniforms to make sure that this was really another attack by the same people, and then risked a quick glance out the window to assess the situation. As it turned out, there was already another back up team making its way through the hotel entrance, and they didn't look like they were here to go soft. She should probably work on an escape route. Her quick scan for anything useful left her with two grenades and a microwave. She placed the explosives inside and set the timer. This should make for a big enough distraction to create a window of escape, as well as arrange a nice welcome for the next attackers making their way up the stairs at the moment. If they wanted to play a game, they could have one.

Her way out of the room lead her through the many bodies left on the floor, and she knew that by the time she would have gotten away, there would be even more. But she had learned how to not care about those things a long time ago. Learned how to do what was expected of her, what she had been trained to do.

_If anyone ever comes after you or disrupts your missions, you kill them. All of them. Dead people can't get in your way. There's no such thing as too many casualties, Natalia._

She approximately had a good forty seconds before the explosion would go off, so she quickly made her way to the elevator, deciding that this was a quicker and better hidden way of escape than the stairs. She couldn't risk calling up the elevator though, as it would have alerted her enemies to what she was planning, so she forced its doors open with her hands and slipped through. She diagonally jumped from one side of the elevator shaft to the other, holding onto ropes and metal bars, until she had made it to the ground floor. There she squeezed herself through the doors once more.

The bomb went off just in time, causing people to hectically run around the lobby, and the uprising panic among the hotel guests allowed her to walk through the lobby and out the main entrance completely unseen. If the element of surprise was her closest ally, chaos was definitely her second one.

Outside, the chaos was still raging on. The air was filled with the smell of smoke, and people were wildly screaming to leave the scene as quickly as possible. Cars were honking at each other, and somewhere in the distance she could hear the sound of sirens coming closer. Natalia pushed through the frightened crowd and turned left. In passing, she quickly grabbed a dark hoodie and a pair of flip flops from one of the many tourist shops next to the hotel, and kept walking. Down the street and away from lurking eyes, letting herself be swallowed by the darkness. She pulled on the hoodie and hid her hair under the hood, then exchanged her high heels for the way more inconspicuous flip flops.

She constantly made sure she wasn't followed and only stopped moving once she had made it to the edge of a river. Her green eyes fixed on a small boat, floating peacefully on the dark water, perfectly concealed by the shadows from the shore. In moments like these, she was definitely grateful for always being precautious and preparing multiple ways of escape for her missions. She elegantly hopped on deck and started the motor. Without looking back, she sped off into the night, yellow and orange flames from the explosion burning brightly into the dark, starless sky behind her.

_SHIELD HQ, NEW YORK CITY, A FEW DAYS LATER_

"I just got the report from Europe. No traces, no relevant security camera footage, no one left alive to tell us what happened. Just a bunch of bodies and a smoking hole where the penthouse suite should be. It was her." Pierce had a stern look on his face seemed to be very on edge about the whole situation.

"She sure knows how to keep all of you busy, I have to give her that." Fury had to suppress the amusement in his voice. He sure as hell knew how serious this situation was, but he had never been especially fond of playing ball with these assholes from the World Security Council, and seeing them sweat over this one person definitely had something satisfying to it.

"With all due respect, sir, but she took out a whole goddamn SHIELD team," Hawley cut in.

"Plus, the information she just stole has the potential to disturb global security in a major way."

Malick nodded in agreement. "We have shown a lot of patience for your cat–and–mouse chase halfway across Europe, but this has to end. Now. If you feel like you and your agents aren't up for the task, we can find someone else to take care of this. But I don't have to remind you of what those people will do to her, do I? I'm sure you understand that anyone, even she, would rather be shot than to face that kind of _treatment_."

"You really think a trained assassin, who is capable of eliminating a whole strike team, would break under one of your lapdogs, councilman?"

"I'd much rather not have to find out. So we're giving you one last chance. Can you handle it?"

"Yes goddamnit. I will handle it."

Fury quickly punched the screen of his tablet to end the video conference. He was getting tired of the politics. He was a man of action instead of talk, and right now he had about a million better things to do than to stand here and debate wether or not he could handle his own problems. This thing needed a change of strategy, a new approach. He needed someone who could keep up with the Black Widow and follow her secretly instead of already alarming her from miles away; someone who could take her out from a distance.

Matter of fact, he might have just the man for the job.

"Agent Barton." Nick Fury always looked serious when he spoke, but this time the tone in his voice suggested that there was a special urgency to the matter.

"Good morning sir," Clint replied politely and gave him a small nod. Fury had called him to his office first thing this morning, so he was pretty sure the director was about to give him his next assignment. "I take it you have a mission for me?"

"Matter of fact I do," Fury said and pulled up a file on the large screen on the wall in front of them.

Clint looked over it briefly. Most of it was in Russian, so he didn't understand much. Despite being a pretty much fluent speaker, his writing and reading comprehension in the language was terrible at best, completely nonexistent at worst. What caught most of his attention though was the picture. It wasn't in particular good quality — he guessed that it had been taken a while ago already — and showed a young woman with bright green eyes and red hair that fell around her face in wild, loose curls. Her skin was of a soft porcelain, the rosy cheeks in perfect harmony with the color of her full lips. After Clint had met Laura, he had never been interested in anyone else besides her, but even he had to admit that the woman in the picture looked beautiful.

"This is Natalia Alianovna Romanova, code name Black Widow," Fury began, gaining Clint's attention. "She graduated from the Red Room sometime during the Cold War. She then worked for the KGB and was quickly considered their top spy and one of the world's deadliest assassins. After the fall of the Soviet Union, she continued working partly for Russia, partly as an independent contractor. SHIELD has had her on the radar for a while now, as her activities have become a serious threat to global security. She has managed to extract top secret intel from the U.S. and many of our allies, as well as taking out a number of high profile targets all around the world. Including a Russian nuclear scientist who was set to arrive in the U.S. a few weeks ago to cooperate with us. Let's just say he never made it to his destination. It has taken us a while to actually locate her and put a name and a face to the alias, and, so far, none of our teams have been able to effectively capture her or take her out."

"Which is why you're sending me," Clint concluded for him. He was one of the best snipers SHIELD had and therefore he was quite used to being sent on rather difficult missions by Fury.

"Correct. We believe that she is currently in Russia. You will be sent there to track her down and eliminate her. As always, there will be no extraction team in order to keep things quiet. A jet is waiting whenever you're ready," Fury informed him.

Clint just nodded at the director and kept a professional face. Eliminating someone was never a particularly pleasant task, but he understood that sometimes it was necessary. SHIELD did the best they could to try to capture the bad guys, but in some cases that was just not possible anymore and the threat had to be erased to ensure worldwide peace. As Fury loved to say, SHIELD took the world as it was, not as they would like it to be.

The archer made his way to the door to go and prepare himself, but just when he was about to leave the office, Fury raised his voice again. "Agent Barton? Just one thing. Be careful with this one. The Black Widow is highly trained and dangerous, and she is know for her special talents in... persuasion. I do not want to have you send back to me in a body bag. Understood?"

Clint turned around again briefly. "Yes sir," he assured. Then he was out of the door.

**Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it :)**  
**You probably noticed that I called her Natalia instead of Natasha. I did so on purpose and it'll make more sense a few chapters from now.**  
**Also I have the next chapter pretty much written already and will upload pretty soon. I really wanted to have a kind of espionage themed beginning, but the next chapter will be about Clint and Nat meeting and also start to get more emotional, so stay tuned.**

**Oh, and don't forget to leave a review.**


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